Who were the Mongols?

Based on this picture, what assumptions would you make

about the Mongols?

In your notebook, construct the following graphic organizer:

The Mongol Empire9/11/17

SOCIAL

POLITICAL

INTER-

ACTIONS

CULTURE

ECONOMIC

In your notebook, construct the following graphic organizer:

1. Take out a highlighter.

2. Read through the text.

3. Highlight passages where you recognize one of our themes.

4. Paraphrase the characteristics in your notes under the appropriate theme.

The Mongol Empire9/11/17

SOCIAL • Gender roles / relations • Family and kinship • Racial and ethnic groups• Social and economic classes

POLITICAL • Leaders, political structures and forms of governance

• Empires, nations, and nationalism

• Expansion, collapse, revolts and revolutions

INTER-

ACTIONS

• Demographics, Disease• Migrations, Settlement patterns• Technology

CULTURE • Religion, belief systems, philosophies and ideologies

• Science and technology • Art, music, literature, clothing

ECONOMIC • Goods, trade, commerce, and labor systems

• Agricultural, pastoral, and industrial production

• Capitalism and socialism• Production of goods

•Used marriage to bond tribes•People promoted based on ability, not tribal relationships ( )•Genghis Khan’s family had privileges over others•Targeted aristocrats from conquered territories

•Genghis Khan unites tribes (elected in kuriltai)•Largest empire in the world – brutal wars – Conquered Jin, Central Asia, Islamic empires•Used horsemen, bows, catapults•Foreign administrates were used to run the gov’t and collect taxes

•Conquered China, Persia, Russia•Borrowed achievements and inventions from conquered peoples ( )•Bubonic Plague spreads from China to Europe killing millions

•More religiously tolerant – Mongols converted to local religions•No notable artistic of literary movements•Genghis Khan emphasized loyalty and discipline

– Period of trade and prosperity across Eurasia under Mongol rule•Protected Silk Road trade across Eurasia•Valued craftsmen and artisans

Students will be able to determine how key characteristics of the Mongol Empire by… Categorizing information about

the Mongols by using the S.P.I.C.E. strategy,

Constructing a concept map as a class.

Much of their success was a result of the military techniques these steppe nomads had practiced for centuries

• Expert horseman and bowman

• Extremely fast and mobile military force

• The central Asian bow was more powerful and could shoot farther than the bows of their enemies

Early example of : people who resisted Mongol rule were slaughtered to generate fear and incite others to surrender.

: • Rewarded positions of leadership to the

most qualified individuals

: • Adopted weapons, armor, tactics and

soldiers from other civilizations they encountered (including Chinese, Persians, and Europeans)

• Religiously tolerant and often adopted cultural practices of conquered peoples

: The conquest of Genghis Khan brought peace and commercial unification along the Silk Road• The flow of ideas, religion, technological innovations, and resources

(Marco Polo travels to the court of Kublai Khan)

• NEGATIVE EFFECT: The Black Death spread along trade routes through the empire

How do I determine if something is trustworthy?

History is an argument about the past and an investigation into how we got here.

1. Examine your

2. Place evidence in

4. Look for

Which of these publications is the most credible source of information?

When analyzing a source, there are characteristics that make a source more or less reliable, such as:•Credibility of the author•Commitment of author to the information?

• Is the writing anonymous? •Are their legal repercussions to printing false information?

•Motive for creating document / evidence

•Witness or not?

When you examine a piece of evidence, ask yourself:

• Who wrote this?

• What is the author’s perspective?

• When was it written?

• Where was it written?

• Why was it written?

Explaining an event and evaluating how it connects to other local, regional, or national events.

What do you think of when you see this image?

Ask yourself:

Where was this photograph taken?

Kshetrapala shrine in Jabalpur, India

When was this photograph taken?

2011

Does that matter?

What do you do if you find information from two pieces of evidence that contradict each other? How do you know which to believe?

• What do other documents say?

• Do the documents agree? If not, why?

• What are other possible documents?

• What documents are most reliable?

Source A: According to Chinggis Khan’s shaman, reported in a Mongol-written history in 1228:

Before you were born [1167] . . . everyone was feuding. Rather than sleep they

robbed each other of their possessions. . . The whole nation was in rebellion. Rather

than rest they fought each other. In such a world one did not live as one wished, but

rather in constant conflict. There was no respite [letup], only battle. There was no

affection, only mutual slaughter.

Source E: According to Ata-Malik Juvaini, a Persian chronicler who was employed by the Mongol governor of Persia, in 1261:

In the spring…, the people of Nishapur [a city in Persia] saw that the matter was

serious ... By the Saturday night all the walls were covered with Mongols... The Mongols

now descended from the walls and began to slay and plunder.... They then drove all the

survivors, men and women, out onto the plain; and ... it was commanded that the town

should be laid waste in such a manner that the site could be ploughed upon [totally

destroyed]; and that ... not even cats and dogs should be left alive....

They severed the heads of the slain from their bodies and heaped them up in piles,

keeping those of the men separate from those of the women and children.

Source #1: From Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, 1259.

Note: Paris was a Benedictine monk and English chronicler who is one of the first Europeans to write at length about the Mongols.

They are inhuman and beastly, rather monsters than men, thirsting for and drinking

blood, tearing and devouring the flesh of dogs and men, dressed in ox-hides, armed with

plates of iron… thickset, strong, invincible, indefatigable.… They are without human laws,

know no comforts, are more ferocious than lions or bears…. They know no other language

than their own, which no one else knows; for until now there has been no access to them…

so that there could be no knowledge of their customs or persons…. They wander about with

their flocks and their wives, who are taught to fight like men.

indefatigable, adj. – tirelessly continuing onward

Mongols were

fierce, warlike

people

(A) Khan’s Shaman

(F) Paris

(E) Juvaini

“fought each other”, “constant conflict”, “…only battle”

“invincible, indefatigable”, “more ferocious than lions”

“slay and plunder”, “laid waste”, piles of severed heads

1. CATEGORIZE THE DOCUMENTS

• Sort the documents by common characteristics

• Consider the , ,

• Provide a brief quote / phrase from the text that supports your interpretation

Source A: According to Chinggis Khan’s shaman, reported in a Mongol-written history in 1228:

Before you were born [1167] . . . everyone was feuding. Rather than sleep they

robbed each other of their possessions. . . The whole nation was in rebellion. Rather

than rest they fought each other. In such a world one did not live as one wished, but

rather in constant conflict. There was no respite [letup], only battle. There was no

affection, only mutual slaughter.

Source #2: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, in Christopher Dawson, The Mongol Mission, 1955.

Note: John of Plano Carpini was a Franciscan representative of Pope Innocent IV and traveled to Karakorum between 1245 and 1247. It is believed he was the first European to visit the Mongols in their homeland.

In the whole world there are to be found no more obedient subjects than the Tatar

[Mongols]…. They pay their lords more respect than any other people, and would hardly

dare to lie to them…. Their women are chaste…. Wars, quarrels, the infliction of bodily

harm, and manslaughter do not occur among them, and there are no large-scale thieves or

robbers among them…. They treat one another with due respect; they regard each other

almost as members of one family, and, although they do not have a lot of food, they like to

share it with one another.

Moreover, they are accustomed to deprivation; if, therefore, they have fasted for a day

or two, and have not eaten anything at all, they do not easily lose their tempers…. While

riding they can endure extreme cold and at times also fierce heat. They are extremely

arrogant toward other people, [and] tend to anger… easily…. They are the greatest liars in

the world in dealing with other people…. They are crafty and sly… [and] have an admirable

ability to keep their intentions secret….

They are messy in their eating and drinking and in their whole way of life, [and] cling

fiercely to what they have. They have no conscience about killing other people…. If anyone

is found in the act of plundering or stealing in the territory under their power, he is put to

death without any mercy.

chaste, adj. – restrained, particularly in regard to sexuality

deprivation, n. – lacking something that is considered necessary

Source C: According to the French friar William of Rubruck who spent several months in the Great Khan's court in the early 1250s:

It is the duty of the women to drive the carts, get the dwelling on and off them, milk

the cows, make butter and to dress and sew skins . . . They also sew the boots, the socks,

and the clothing, make the felt and cover the houses.

The men make the bows and arrows, manufacture stirrups and bits, do the

carpentering on their dwellings and carts; they take care of the horses, milk the mares,

churn the mares’ milk, make the skins in which it is put; they also look after the camels

and load them. Both sexes look after the sheep and goats.

At the entrance [of the palace] Master William of Paris has made for him [the Great

Khan] a large silver tree, at the foot of which are four silver lions each having a pipe and

all belching forth white mares’ milk . . . The whole dwelling was completely covered

inside with cloth of gold, and in the middle in a little hearth was a fire of twigs and roots

of wormwood . . . and also the dung of oxen.

Source D: According to a letter by a Hungarian bishop who had custody of two Tartar captives taken in Russia, written to the bishop of Paris in 1257:

I asked them about their belief; and in few words, they believe nothing. They began

to tell me, that they were come from their own country to conquer the world. They make

use of the Jewish [actually, Uighur; the Uighurs were a semi-sedentary, literate steppe

people, and early allies of the Mongols] letters, because formerly they had none of their

own . . . They eat frogs, dogs, serpents and all things . . . Their horses are good but stupid.

Source E: According to Ata-Malik Juvaini, a Persian chronicler who was employed by the Mongol governor of Persia, in 1261:

In the spring…, the people of Nishapur [a city in Persia] saw that the matter was

serious ... By the Saturday night all the walls were covered with Mongols... The Mongols

now descended from the walls and began to slay and plunder.... They then drove all the

survivors, men and women, out onto the plain; and ... it was commanded that the town

should be laid waste in such a manner that the site could be ploughed upon [totally

destroyed]; and that ... not even cats and dogs should be left alive....

They severed the heads of the slain from their bodies and heaped them up in piles,

keeping those of the men separate from those of the women and children.

Source #1: From Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, 1259.

Note: Paris was a Benedictine monk and English chronicler who is one of the first Europeans to write at length about the Mongols.

They are inhuman and beastly, rather monsters than men, thirsting for and drinking

blood, tearing and devouring the flesh of dogs and men, dressed in ox-hides, armed with

plates of iron… thickset, strong, invincible, indefatigable.… They are without human laws,

know no comforts, are more ferocious than lions or bears…. They know no other language

than their own, which no one else knows; for until now there has been no access to them…

so that there could be no knowledge of their customs or persons…. They wander about with

their flocks and their wives, who are taught to fight like men.

indefatigable, adj. – tirelessly continuing onward

Source G: According to a description by Ghazi, Muslim chronicler, 1270:

Under the reign of Genghis Khan, all the countries . . . enjoyed such peace that a man

might have journeyed from the land of the sunrise to the land of sunset with a golden

platter upon his head without suffering the least violence from anyone

Source H: According to a description by Marco Polo, a merchant from Venice who sat on the court of Kublai Khan, 1271:

The natives of this city are men of peaceful character, both from education and from

the example of their kings, whose disposition [attitude] was the same. They know

nothing of handling arms (weapons), and keep none in their houses. You hear of no

feuds or noisy quarrels or dissentions among them. Both in their commercial dealings

and in their manufactures, they are thoroughly honest and truthful, and there is such a

degree of good will and neighborly attachment among both men and women that you

would take the people who live in the same street to be all one family.

2. Construct a thesis statement that accounts for all of the documents.

: State the position that you will argue for.

: Describe at least one specific piece of evidence from the document that would support your claim.

: Analyze the evidence from (b) to show how it supports your claim.

: Additional logic or reasoning that may be necessary to support your warrant.

GENERAL FORMULA:is because

• The are a because

.

A should reflect an based on

Common Errors Example How to Fix It

No Thesis Write a thesis… jerk

A should reflect an based on

Common Errors Example How to Fix It

No Thesis Write a thesis… jerk

Thesis not related to the question

Identify key words in the question that can help you to focus in on the topic.

A should reflect an based on

Common Errors Example How to Fix It

No Thesis Write a thesis… jerk

Thesis not related to the question

Identify key words in the question that can help you to focus in on the topic.

Thesis paraphrases the question, or is

vague

Try to “argue” your thesis. Are there adversarial positions? If not, then this isn’t a thesis.Avoid vague words (e.g. very, many, a lot, huge, bigly, etc.)

A should reflect an based on

Common Errors Example How to Fix It

No Thesis Write a thesis… jerk

Thesis not related to the question

Identify key words in the question that can help you to focus in on the topic.

Thesis paraphrases the question, or is

vague

Try to “argue” your thesis. Are there adversarial positions? If not, then this isn’t a thesis.Avoid vague words (e.g. very, many, a lot, huge, bigly, etc.)

Explicitly grouping sources

Not necessarily wrong… but totally unnecessary and comes off as clumsy and amateurish